Opening day aces

To differentiate this blog from others I try to post some interesting things, stuff that is not normally out there, or at least not easily found. So I thought it would be interesting to compare opening day pitching matchups for every team. This will show who is the team's ace, or at least for opening day, or the time being.

There were many sub par starts, especially from C.C. Sabathia and Mark Buehrle, going only 6.1 innings combined! Must be the pressure of being the very first game of the 2006 season!

The best pitchers duel belonged to Dontrelle Willis and Roy Oswalt in Houston, where neither starter gave up any runs. Oswalt won the duel, going 8 innings, and giving up only 5 hits, one base on balls, and striking out 8. Willis went 5 innings only allowing one hit, however he gave up 3 base on balls, and only struck out three. Aside from the difference in hits, Willis threw 107 pitches (61 strikes), while Oswalt threw 91 (62 strikes). Check out the wrap and box score.

The next best duel went to Brandon Webb and Jason Jennings in Colorado. They both went 7 innings, Webb gave up 5 hits, while Jennings gave up 6. They each gave up one run, both earned. Webb walked 2, Jennings walked 1. Webb struck out 2, while Jennings struck out 6. Both faced 27 batters. Both pitched 98, 66 strikes for Webb, 62 for Jennings. So all in all they both pitched pretty evenly.

Some other good starts went to Kenny Rogers, Randy Johnson, Jake Peavy, and Roy Halladay. Not a good start for Barry Zito, only pitching 1.1 innings, and giving up 7 runs, all earned. Not a great start for Jon Lieber either going 3.1 and giving up 8 runs, again, all earned.

So below, see the matchups, and numbers for yourself. The statistical abbreviations are at the top only. Mind the formatting, as it wasn't easy, putting all the data in!

                           IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA

April 2nd

Cleveland Indians at Chicago White Sox

C.C. Sabathia 2.1 3 3 3 1 3 0 11.57
Mark Buehrle 4.0 4 3 3 1 1 1 6.75

April 3rd

Boston Red Sox at Texas Rangers

Curt Schilling    (W, 1-0) 7.0 5 2 2 1 5 1 2.57
Kevin Millwood (L, 0-1) 5.0 7 5 5 1 3 1 9.00

Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Baltimore Orioles

Scott Kazmir   (L, 0-1) 4.0 8 6 6 3 4 3 13.50
Rodrigo Lopez (W, 1-0) 7.0 7 6 5 1 2 2 6.43

Detroit Tigers at Kansas City Royals

Kenny Rogers (W, 1-0) 6.0 3 1 1 0 5 0 1.50
Scott Elarton (L, 0-1) 5.2 7 2 2 3 3 2 3.18

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Seattle Mariners

Bartolo Colon 5.0 8 3 3 1 4 1 5.40
Jamie Moyer  6.2 9 3 3 1 2 1 4.05

New York Yankees at Oakland Athletics

Randy Johnson (W, 1-0) 7.0 5 1 1 0 3 1 1.29
Barry Zito         (L, 0-1) 1.1 4 7 7 4 3 1 47.25

Washington Nationals at New York Mets

Livan Hernandez (L, 0-1) 6.0 8 3 3 1 4 1 4.50
Tom Glavine        (W, 1-0) 6.0 6 1 1 3 5 0 1.50

Pittsburgh Pirates at Milwaukee Brewers

Oliver Perez 5.1 3 1 1 3 9 1 1.69
Doug Davis  6.0 6 2 2 4 6 0 3.00

Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati Reds

Carlos Zambrano 4.2 7 5 5 5 5 2 9.64
Aaron Harang      (L, 0-1) 5.0 9 9 6 3 3 1 10.80

St. Louis Cardinals at Philadelphia Phillies

Chris Carpenter (W, 1-0) 5.0 9 4 4 1 4 2 7.20
Jon Lieber          (L, 0-1) 3.1 9 8 8 1 3 1 21.60

Arizona Diamondbacks at Colorado Rockies

Brandon Webb 7.0 5 1 1 2 2 0 1.29
Jason Jennings 7.0 6 1 1 1 6 0 1.29

Atlanta Braves at Los Angeles Dodgers

Tim Hudson             4.0 6 5 5 3 3 0 11.25
Derek Lowe (L, 0-1) 5.0 9 8 7 1 2 2 12.60

Florida Marlins at Houston Astros

Dontrelle Willis         5.0 1 0 0 3 3 0 0.00
Roy Oswalt (W, 1-0) 8.0 5 0 0 1 8 0 0.00

San Francisco Giants at San Diego Padres

Jason Schmidt (L, 0-1) 7.0 7 4 4 1 2 2 5.14
Jake Peavy      (W, 1-0) 7.0 4 1 1 1 5 0 1.29

April 4th

Minnesota Twins at Toronoto Blue Jays

Johan Santana (L, 0-1) 5.2 10 4 4 1 3 1 6.35
Roy Halladay  (W, 1-0) 7.2 5 3 2 0 4 2 2.35